This year’s American Lighting Assn. (ALA) Conference in Bal Harbour, FL, drew more than 550 lighting industry professionals—the largest attendance in 10 years. In addition to veteran participants, 85 registrants representing 58 new-member companies attended the annual event. Here’s what a few newcomers had to say about the three-day affair:

Russ Klingel, National Sales Manager, Fanimation

“Since Fanimation recently joined ALA, we felt it was very important to attend our first conference. All industry people must get involved if we want to make any significant changes. I am encouraging all of our sales reps to seriously think about joining, as it’s our only industry organization. We’ve agreed to attend the conference again next year. I was the first to sign up for next year’s vendor exhibit space, and I’ve volunteered for the Golf Committee. I’m looking forward to another great weekend.”

Gloria De Anda, co-owner, Arizona Lighting Co. of Yuma in Yuma, AZ

“The ALA was offering sponsorship for first-time attendees, so I submitted an application and was accepted. I am working on [getting] my lighting specialist certification, so the opportunity to take advantage of the instructional classes was the biggest draw for me. I was impressed by the quality of the instructors, and I have already used a lot of the information I learned at the workshops. The conference was a great time, and there was so much opportunity to learn.”

Steve Ricci, President, Ricci Sales Agency, Park Ridge, NJ

“The key reasons we attended this year’s conference were educational training for our four key agency people, agency development from an owner’s standpoint and [to take advantage of] networking opportunities with customers, reps and manufacturers. This is a people business, and the conference is an investment in our people. I appreciated the diversity of education at the conference. Since attending, we’ve made significant investments in hardware, software and account services in order to become a state-of-the-art agency.”